I am currently taking 3 courses from Coursera (one of
which I am wrapping up this week) and have completed another 3.
1. These courses are incredibly well done - better than
nearly any courses I took as an undergrad.
2. They are also very challenging, if anyone wants to
take a look at the derivations I had to perform for Astronomy (and yes they
have software that can grade mathematical derivations) I'd be happy to show
them (or simply come to the online course improvement meeting Tuesday).
This will have a major global impact, there really is no
debate. Here is some anecdotal information from one course (Astronomy). I have
corresponded a lot on the bulletin board with 2 students, Σταύρος A.
Αθανασιάδης - a student from Greece who is taking 6 courses and has this as his
only real access to education and Khadija Niazi who is taking about 10 other
courses - all advanced science courses (Astrophysics, Molecular Biology,
Organic Chemistry). Now here is the kicker - Khadija is 12 and she is brilliant
- her questions and analysis are better than nearly anything I have seen from
any of my undergraduates..
I have learned a lot from the courses I have taken. Now I
must go and determine in X | Y = y has an expected value of X that is the same
as the expected value of X when Y is also random (doing my Data Analysis
homework).
